Canadian veteran who was urged to seek (MAiD) euthanasia was not the only one.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Colby Cosh who writes for the National Post, published an update on August 30 to the story of the Veterans Affairs Canada worker who advocated euthanasia for PTSD. 

    Article: Veterans Affairs Canada worker advocates euthanasia for PTSD (Link).

Cosh, who does not oppose MAiD, wrongly states that euthanasia is a form of medical treatment under Canadian law. In fact euthanasia was legalized in Canada as an exception to homicide in the criminal code. Nonetheless, Cosh colates the information concerning the Veteran with PTSD who was urged to ask for euthanasia by the Veterans Affairs worker. Cosh writes:

A couple of weeks ago, Global News shocked the conscience of the country with a news item about a suffering Canadian combat survivor who called into Veterans Affairs to talk about medical treatment and was given an unexpected, unwanted lecture about assisted suicide. According to Global’s initial report, the man was recovering from a brain injury suffered on duty, along with post-traumatic stress. But he was also improving mentally and physically, and so was surprised and discouraged when he was asked whether he had thought about killing himself with a doctor’s help.

Global has not identified the veteran, but in the days after the original story broke, its reporters continued to tack on dreadful new details. On August 16, Global had said the man was “casually” offered help in seeking medically assisted death. By the 19th the network had learned that the Veterans Affairs agent had brought up euthanasia “repeatedly” and persisted even after being asked to shut up about it. The caseworker had also boasted, it is said, about helping another combat veteran obtain assisted suicide, and added that such a death was “better than blowing his brains out all over the wall or driving his car into something.”

Notice that the caseworker had also boasted about helping another combat veteran obtain assisted suicide.

Cosh explains the Veterans Affairs Canada responded by launching an investigation into the story. Cosh then analyzes this story with respect to people experiencing suicidal ideation. Cosh writes:

The harm done to Global’s veteran by the mention of an assisted suicide option seems like something that is awfully hard to control in practice. Of course people speaking for a “Veterans Affairs” department should not actively try to literally harangue clients to death. But are we going to begin to have different rules for different groups who are exposed to a high risk of suicide? It’s worth remembering that military personnel are not the only occupational group that have this feature. There are several trades known to have something like double the background risk of suicide, and for men altogether out of work it is higher than that.

Commenting about the outrage with respect to a Canadian Veteran who served Canada and is now experiencing suicidal ideation cannot be fully understood outside of the context of the many people with disabilities, who are also living in poverty, who have died by euthanasia (MAiD) because they are lacking the necessary medical and social supports.

Canada's euthanasia law has gone out-of-control and it needs to be honestly reviewed and yet the current government is not actually reviewing it, but proposing expansions of it.

Links to more stories of the euthanasia experience in Canada:

• Veterans affairs worker advocates euthanasia for PTSD (Link).
• Shopping for doctor death in Canada (Link).
• Gwen is seeking euthanasia because she can't access medical treatment (Link).
• Euthanasia for disability and poverty (Link).
• Euthanasia for Long Covid and poverty (Link).
• Canada's MAiD law is the most permissive in the world. (Link).